[Cyberangel17]

Legalizing marijuana will bring revenue to the states to balance the budget and provide regulated tax benefits; therefore, this is a good course of action for our failing economy.

[tomder55]

Of course you have to add a whole new bureaucratic structure to "regulate " pot and you may also have hidden costs... You probably would still have to police the sale of unregulated pot since the argument I've often heard is that taxing it would reduce demand..
This when applied to the tobacco industry created a black market for untaxed or lower taxed tobacco smuggling which in turn continues to help fund criminal operations.

These and other factors need to be added to the calculation when determining if there really is an economic benefit in legalize/regulating the drug.

The people of California this month determined there was no such benefit and rejected a referendum that would've done it .